Image source: https://colombiareports.com/chiribiquete-national-park-in-heart-of-colombian-amazon-to-more-than-double-in-size/
War inflicts plenty of damage upon ecosystems (among other things), but peace carries its own pitfalls. In a study recently published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, Drs. Dolors Armenteras, Laura Schneider and Liliana María Dávalos, of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Rutgers and Stony Brook, respectively, describe how the Colombian government’s failure to extend the rule of law throughout the country in the wake of the civil war against the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, is resulting in heightened burning of the Amazon, as newly protected land is is cleared for agriculture and other personal use.
The authors found a “disproportionate increase” of fires within protected areas found inside former FARC-controlled territory. Using both Landsat images and computer modelling, they showed that the incidence of fires within these areas rose far above what would be predicted by naturally occurring forces. This finding strongly suggested human intervention.
The lack of law enforcement in former FARC territories is a major contributor to illegal clearing and burning. The Colombian government still has not fully stepped in to fill the gap left by the FARC’s demobilization.
Ambiguous landownership also creates incentives for ecological harm. Because land holds both social and economic value, many Colombians living inside former FARC territory now see opportunities to obtain previously untouchable property. Whereas during the war, forest cover carried strategic value as a means of hiding from observation and attack it now offers greater value as pasture and farmland.
Further complicating the land use issue, the authors note that the Colombian government does not compensate smallholders when their land is placed under protected status, as has happened with the recent expansion of Chiribiquete National Park. The failure to compensate smallholders, the authors note, supports a parallel market for land within protected areas.
Uncontrolled land clearing can have long-term and far-reaching consequences. In 2017, researchers from UCLA demonstrated that the Amazon was capable of creating its own clouds from moisture released by trees. Rainfall from those clouds warmed the surrounding atmosphere and triggered enough circulation that the authors theorize that the tree-generated clouds may be able to trigger the wind patterns that bring rainy season moisture inland from the sea.
If correct, these tree-generated clouds are a key component of weather patterns, on which Colombia depends for its agriculture and drinking water.
Unlike most other countries, 70% of Colombia’s population of of nearly 50 million people relies on trapped cloud moisture in the high plateaus, or páramos, for drinking water. Calculating the precise effect that deforestation in the Amazon will have on Colombia’s water supply remains a significant challenge, but the fact that the two systems are linked should create cause for concern.
In addition to the national importance of water security for Colombia, its vast natural riches provide great potential for a burgeoning ecotourism industry and, to a lesser extent, bioprospecting. Uncontrolled clearing of such valuable land puts all these things at risk.